As if ringing cell phones weren't bad enough, it seems the birds in Australia are now imitating the sounds as part of their mating call. Maybe we humans can do the same.. we don't actually need cell phones, just fake ringing devices, to attract mates. (Link from metafilter)

The top-selling Amazon books for people who live in Mountain View, California include books on local trails, a Java book, a book on employee stock options, and Transpersonal Knowing: Exploring the Horizon of Consciousness. And don't forget that book on how to buy a house! So I live in a town of Java-programming, trail-hiking, employee stock option-purchasing home buyers. Ummm.. well, I do own two copies of the number 2 book, Penninsula Trails.

If you live in Romania, you're boning up on Marketing Management and cracking the GMAT. In Iceland, Donna Kooler's 555 Christmas Cross-Stitch Designs is popular; I suppose they need something to do during those long winter months. Are you wondering what those folks at PG&E (our utilities company) are reading during the power crisis? Well, right after Trading Natural Gas: Cash Futures Options and Swaps are all the Harry Potter books. Mm hmm.

If you'd like to find out more about who's reading what from your town, company, or school, just check out Amazon's page on Purchase Circles.

Ohh, here is a cool time-waster: on-line mini golf. (No, it's not putt putt!) You need Flash. (Link from metafilter)

This weekend I went backpacking in Yosemite at the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. We put all our food into bear cannisters (short metal cylinders with flat tops you need a screwdriver to open) but we didn't have enough room for our trash and our toiletries. We hoisted them up a tree in a stuff sack, but shortly after midnight a mama bear and her three cubs showed up. The mama bear sent one of her cubs up the tree and it managed to chew through the bag before Dave and Torsten chased off the mother bear and the other cubs, leaving the cub stuck and crying in the tree for a while. I found a link to a black bear cub making distress sounds, a bit similar to what we heard.

They dragged the bag away from camp and in the morning Dave retrieved what was left, such as my toothpaste and sunscreen. But they ate my deoderant. Now was that really necessary?

After they left, another bear showed up and climbed the tree right above our tent. He must have missed the training session where the mother bear explained you should only climb the trees with food. Dave and Torsten chased him away as well (I stayed in my tent, thank you) but in the morning as we left camp we saw the mother bear and her cubs nearby. The cubs were cute and tiny, but we decided not to bring one home as a pet because it would make our packs too heavy.

Several California and Florida businessmen plan to clone Dracula by digging up the body of Vlad the Imapler and extracting his DNA. In addition, Vlad's hometown of Sighisora wants to open "Dracula Land". Here's a quote from the article:

"Dracula tourists visiting Romania buy T-shirts, postcards, paintings and ceramic figures," Reuters says. Imagine putting a handsome Vlad the Impaler ceramic in your cabinet and waking up to find all your Precious Moments figurines are bleeding from the neck and looking at you with the raw hunger of the walking undead.

When I visited Dracula's castle in 1999, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of tourism. Who wants to promote a guy who skinned and boiled people alive? I'm not sure even Disney could make Vlad the Impaler kid-friendly. Perhaps Tim Rice and Phil Collins could write a song together: "And caaaaaan you feeeeel the staaaake tonight...." (Link from metafilter)